DESIGN PROCESS
PHASE 1: CONCEPT IDEATION
This design process illustrates the journey and evolution of a design catering to needs of industrialised nations to a new strategy in third world nations. This will be highlighted further into the design process
Overview
Target Market
In a rapidly changing environment, it is proving vital to examine the impact of future agricultural trends. By 2050, the agricultural sector will require 70% more food to feed a growing rural population. Additionally, rural towns In Western Australia, are predicted to consume more than 4000 gigalitres of water – an increase of over 50% from 2008.
The effects of climate change threatens agricultural productivity. Data has shown, that future stock production in rural areas of Australia will experience a decline due to changes in rainfall variability and increased temperatures. This is mainly in part to increased crop stress, due to heat and disease-related issues and periods of longer droughts and wet periods. Using second-hand data, we identified three key issues rural Australians face:
1. Populations in these areas are most susceptible to changes in food availability, due to a lack of comprehensive food security plans.
2. Fresh produce costs substantially more in remote areas, as access to nutritious and good quality foods, are dependent on the population density.
3. Residents in remote rural areas need to travel long distances to gain access to grocery stores, as this is also dependent on population density.
Conceptualization
Concepts
H2Air
H2Air is an air cleansing and monitoring system designed to limit the effects of air pollution. H2Air is a device that monitors air pollution from the collection of water. Its extracts the toxins in the air and purifies it. It will benefit individuals with asthma, who may struggle to breathe. The target is to improve the health of the general population, thus increasing a countries well-being.
Smart Plant Incubator
Growing your own fruit and vegetables can be time-consuming and extremely challenging. The smart plant incubator aims to make growing easy, improve efficiency, and reduce water wastage for environmentally aware Australians choosing to grow their own produce. The device resembles an incubator and would assume all responsibility for the growing process: nanotechnology would extract water from the atmosphere, photovoltaic material would produce energy, whereas all other variables (e.g. ph. levels) would be controlled and monitored by the system.
Hydropanels
Currently, grey water to fuel everyday
housing needs such as dishwashers, pools and showers is supplied through
rainwater tanks. However, such tanks are highly dependent on seasonal
conditions. Hydro Panels work like solar panels, where sheets of atmospheric
cooling surfaces on roofs connect to existing housing water systems.
Chosen Concept and Iteration
The Team decided to expand on the core strengths of the Smart Incubator idea to a larger scale to increase productivity. Our idea was to have a vertical farming system in various rural and urban areas. The updated system integrates ACWA’s atmospheric cooling sheets on the side to fuel the hydroponic water management system. Hydroponic systems also require high energy input, in that ACWA sheets,
with no required energy input, would prove most beneficial.
By generating a new product development matrix, we aligned user needs across different markets with the core strengths of potential vertical greenhouse systems.
Vertical systems work beneficially in urban landscapes by expanding one system to each suburb as a local produce supply. Reduction in transportation costs would mean it would be cheaper for consumers.
Larger expansions of land as a hydroponic hub on a horizontal scale in rural areas. Australia has vast areas of dry land, making crops that require adequate hydration harder to grow in these areas. As such, this idea will open up vast opportunities for further agriculture production.
Installation of vertical gardens in the home that incorporate self-sustaining vertical gardening, or even implementation into town supermarkets to supply their own produce.
Testing: Round 1
Survey
A survey was distributed to individuals living in rural Australia to gather insight into how rural households make decisions around fresh produce and water consumption.
Insights: Many households maintain vegetable gardens for the main purpose of self-sufficiency. In comparison to store-bought produce, homegrown produce was preferred.
Interview
One interview was conducted with a rural household to expand on information found in the survey. Interviewees were asked about how they obtained fresh produce and managed water.
Insights: Current methods are low-cost and low effort. One interviewee described the impact of drought on local farmers, who are struggling to afford the maintenance of crops and livestock as a consequence of water scarcity. He suggested there was a need for irrigation solutions.
Iteration
Decision between different markets and scale
Insights gained, show little change to produce costs by use of large-scale hydroponics as opposed to existing growing methods in rural areas. On a critical note, feedback revealed that community gardens have flaws in terms of maintenance and motivation. Furthermore, tapping into large supermarket chains such as Coles and Woolworths would be challenging as they already have established suppliers, and may be reluctant to engage in new partnerships.
We decided to move forward with a smaller-scale version of the idea, primarily due to feasibility concerns and our primary data analysis. Our survey revealed that in comparison to store-bought produce, homegrown produce was preferred and so we initially believed there was a need for small incubator systems.
Critique
Our feedback model prompted us to critically examine key aspects. Examination of critique feedback led us into a re-design of our conception as well as new directions of research so that our final design solution can make the greatest impact in a marketplace. We concluded that there were a number of key issues with the urbanised hydroponic greenhouse concept:
Current growing methods are low cost and low effort (i.e. water supply is accessible from taps or tanks at a low cost), challenging the need for a nanoscience concept that could potentially be expensive to implement.
Competitor analysis online revealed the wide variety of pre-existing household hydroponic systems, which addressed a variety of needs. This would make it difficult for us to yield a strong competitive advantage.
Further inquiry into the nanotechnology revealed that water can’t be extracted without direct contact with the atmosphere. This means the hydro panels won’t work inside the incubator.
PHASE 2: REIMAGINATION AND CONCEPTION
Brainwriting
Decision between different markets and scale
We then decided to look into new industries from the industry map, including disaster relief and entertainment. Each idea built upon hydroponics in new innovative ways to consider all avenues and how the concept can be most effectively applied. To do so, we engaged in brainwriting to generate a large number of ideas in a short period of time. Below are the strongest concepts.
Portable greenhouse
A greenhouse on wheels: disaster relief cart for rural Australia. Would work on the go with a constant inflow of water through a hydroponic system.
Urban Rooftop
Rooftop gardens in urban apartment blocks that would provide fresh produce for residents via a subscription model. The core value in that current soil systems on rooftops are too heavy and impacted by seasons.
Entertainment Landmark
Hydroponic systems applied in a larger context as an entertainment, community garden site. There would be one in each town to fuel attraction as a landmark, similar to Singapore’s ‘Gardens by the Bay’.
Design Reflection
Upon reflection, the team found that the main piece of feedback and criteria addressed from the decision matrices was that there wasn’t a great enough need. We then moved back to the ‘define’ stage to find the most valuable market, in an effort for a more fulfilled final solution.
Background
The Problem: Target Market 2.0
Sub-Saharan Africa is subjected to more extreme climate variability compared to other regions. With the region seasonally burdened by lengthy droughts and little water storage capacity, communities often face severe disruptions in water availability. In addition, only 16% of Sub-Saharan African households have a connection to safe drinking water. In rural Nigeria, 42.7% of local communities face contamination risks when accessing water. As a side effect of unemployment and climate variability, the country is faced with the harsh reality of malnutrition. Our team aims to introduce viable water procurement improvements to end severe waters stress-related problems throughout affected regions. To alleviate the pressure of limited resources, we decided to investigate the use of hydroponics to assist rural African communities establish their own food and water sources independently.
User needs
After acknowledging the growing issues surrounding food and water in Northern Nigeria, we identified three key user needs:
Education
There is greater need on how to instil cultivation strategies across rural communities for self-sufficiency.
Food Security
A reliable source of nutritious foods must be achieved to alleviate symptomatic malnutrition across sub Saharan Africa.
Safe Water
Clean drinking water needs to be made more accessible and made available in emergencies.
Design: Critical Combination
We decided to look back into the value of hydroponics from our initial vertical gardening concept and how it could be applied to humanitarian context. The team was inspired to develop a long-term solution to water-related disparities with the combination of disaster relief properties from the greenhouse on wheels and self-sufficiency offered by vertical gardening. The new concept shows potential in providing year-round crop and water production even in areas with non-arable land. Water is innovatively obtained by hydro panels, collecting water from the atmosphere and dispensing into a water storage system in addition to the hydroponic system for nutrient growth. As well as addressing user needs, the final concept would need to ensure, easy transportation, ease of use and be affordable as an aid solution. This brought about several design challenges:
Making efficient use of space of the hydroponic system to produce the highest yield possible.
Educating and introducing complex technologies into underdeveloped communities.
Designing a cost-efficient structure as an aid solution, that can be easily transported to remote rural communities.
PHASE 3: Testing
Testing: Round 2
We began observational research in a community greenhouse to gain an understanding of the utilisation of space as well as the overall layout and implemented materials. For deeper insight into specifics and use case scenarios, the team employed Bodystorming and Direct experience storyboarding. The biggest design challenge we faced throughout the testing process, lay in our inability to test first-hand users.
Direct Experience Storyboarding
Direct experience prototyping was extremely beneficial as it allowed us to understand greenhouse needs in more detail, whilst collecting first-hand impression of what it is like to interact with the space, even when involving users is not possible. As we did not have access to local hydroponics systems, we decided to print out photographs and make pen annotations, overlaying our hydroponics onto the greenhouse space.
Key Insights:
Need for language translators, volunteers who speak to the local language or effective visual communication methods to deliver the educational aspects. Methods of monitoring and recording water and pH levels to manage plant life cycles should be incorporated. An effective and easy way for the nutrient solution to be entered into the piping system.
Mapping
Mapping allowed us to consider the floor plan, to account for the movement around the space while ensuring a productive growing capacity. Here movement, qualities of space, common pathways, and what volume the human body occupies is captured into a superimposed static snapshot. Furthermore, desire lines are outlined, referring to the preferred method of interaction.
Key Insights:
The major insights drawn were that there needs to be enough walking space between the garden beds, for careful monitoring and harvesting. Whereas the walkway down the middle needs to be even wider to move equipment between.
Bodystorming
Bodystorming allowed us to consider how we sense and feel the hydroponic space, not just how we would think about it. Our team member, Lizzy is the same height as an average Nigerian woman (158cm). The average height of a Nigerian man is 164cm.
Key Insights:
We noticed the issue of stacking shelves too high for cultivation. Crops that are out of reach may cause issues when monitoring crops, or even harvest them. This impacted the dimensions of the design, as we needed to strike a balance between efficiency and productive capacity.
Paper Protoyping
Mapping helped further visualise the layout for productive planting capacity, which we aimed to investigate further in a context even more specific to our greenhouse. We added in the proposed floor plan to grasp how different objects fit into the space, and what pathways were available. A 3D representation of the structure allowed us to play around with these measurements & dimensions in a tactical nature. Final iterations would continue through render prototyping.
Design Iteration
Inspiration from Nespresso pods sparked an idea to have nutrient solutions as a subscription-based model. The strategy locks in users, whilst also providing an easy method and reliable method to receive their resources. The pods are specifically designed to be easily implemented into a Nigerian context, for cost and cultural adjustment reasons. We also needed to consider how the pods can be adjusted in the context of function and efficiency.
With the diameter of the pods the same as the opening of a milk bottle, it can be easily inserted within. Once the recycled bottle is filled with water, it is shaken to fully incorporate. The next process involves placing the bottle onto an exterior pipe, feeding the solution into the hydroponic water reservoir. The nutrient pods are biodegradable by design and made cheap through subsidisation solving the need for an easy way to keep the system running.
With our product still in its development stage, we began to develop a product that not only focused on direct user interactions but also designing a cost-effective and easy to assemble structure in an African context. We decided to pursue high fidelity prototyping, as to provide a clear vision and realisation of the product.
Our vision entailed a product which could be amalgamated from flatpacks. The structure is assembled from panels, that consist of interlocking timber and aluminium framing. Plexiglass will feature all sides of our prototype. This is used over glass, as it is a generally lighter and shatter-resistant alternative. The front panel will be constructed out of timber, allowing locals to carve or paint designs, integrating the structure into their communal space. We discovered, integrating a local aesthetic would help mitigate the intimate feel of western hardware, therefore making the experience more hospitable.
Internal piping follows the internal aluminium support, making sure not to block sunlight. This system would be comprised of 11 strategically placed vertical piping, with four horizontal beams acting as support. As for system feedback, meters for water and PH levels provide an indication for the overall status of the hydroponics greenhouse.
Testing: Round 3
We conducted an interview with three participants to get feedback on our concept and the physical design of the structure. Interviews were conducted with design students who were able to give conceptual design criticism.
There needed to be more consideration into how communities would adapt to new technologies and methods. Concerns of physical design were also addressed, as the interior layout appeared cramped.
Some ideas that would be further considered include the extension of the educational element to include a support program to assist with management and finances. Other educational aspects also became clear, such as how to maintain diseases and pest in those systems.
Other insights suggested that because villages would pay a small rental fee, there will continually be responsibilities and jobs to update.
A scenario-based prototype test was conducted to determine situational responses and to gather overall feedback regarding concept and design. Participants were shown the digital prototype and given scenarios through a narrative related to the Afya concept.
The key takeaways from the scenario testing were regarding the layout of the system itself. The piping needs to be organised in such a way that there is no crossover between drinking water and growing water, as this may cause contamination.
In the educational workshop, there needs to be more content on how to grow plants and the greenhouse’s basic needs. There needed to be user-friendly directives as to where will it be the most beneficial for the lettuce to grow compared to the spinach, where will be new seedlings will be planted etc.
PHASE 4: Delivery
Solution
Afya (Swahili for ‘health’) is a humanitarian greenhouse solution that utilises water-harvesting and hydroponic technology to support rural African communities in establishing their own food and water sources. The aim is to improve health, whilst also offering entrepreneurial and business opportunities to disadvantaged communities.
Afya volunteers teach communities how to harness the power of agriculture for self-sufficiency, by teaching them how they can use technology to cultivate their own fresh produce. By doing so, we’ll help communities establish their own food and water sources and discover the importance of health and nutrition to forge generational change
Education
Afya Volunteers educate rural communities about sustainability, agriculture and how to utilise hydroponics as a means to self-sufficiency.
Hydroponics
Hydroponics provides agricultural benefits to help overcome drought limitations, yield more produce and reduce toxic fertilizers, all without the use of soil. This means that rural communities are provided with more well-rounded and healthier diets.
Nutrient Pods
Hydroponic systems work in that nutrients form the basis of the system. Nutrient pods designed specifically for Afya, that correspond to differing stages of growth, are premixed with water in a recycled bottle and simply inserted into hydroponics system.
Water Panels
Water panels, designed to capture water from the atmosphere, span the roof of Afya. The water flows into a split storage system, where one half is used for drinking and sanitation purposes and the other for the hydroponics system.
Commerce
Afya is a source of income for those who live in low-income rural communities. The system can be leased for a small fee, providing locals with opportunities to buy and sell goods generated by the system.
Creative Egagement
Villagers have the opportunity to paint or carve the wooden exterior of the greenhouse, integrating unconventional first-world technology with rural surroundings; ultimately strengthening active engagement with Afya.
Flat Pack Design
The hydroponics greenhouse is assembled out of interlocking panels and framing. This means it is easy to transport and set up by Afya volunteers